Quaker Research in Progress

64Quaker History Wilmington, DE. The minute books, financial records and records of assistance programs are all available for examination by scholars at the offices of the Historical Society at 505 Market Street Mall, Wilmington, DE 19801. * # # The Halcyon Foundation's publication America in Britain, vol. XIX, no. 2, 1981, pp. 18-23 includes an article by Sheila Betterton entitled "Pennsylvania , England." The author traces West Country, England, connections with William Penn in his role as founder of Pennsylvania. * * * With the appearance in Spring 1981 of Vol. Ill of The Collins Family, this genealogical study of an American Quaker family is completed. Volume III has the title, Ancestors of the Distaff Side in America, and is the joint work of Margaret Hill Collins and Ellinor Collins Aird. As in the case of its companion volumes, it is looseleaf in format in a spiral binder. There are 290 pages, including illustrations, genealogical charts, etc. The price for Vol. Ill is $21.95, ppd. from Margaret H. Collins at 725 New Gulph Road, Bryn Mawr, PA 19010. This carefully researched book opens with lively accounts of early Quaker history and the settlement of Philadelphia, the Welsh tract and West NewJersey . It stresses the role of particular individuals and their families with emphasis on the maternal side of the Collins family. Biographical sketches of such worthies as Anthony Morris, Mahlon Stacy, William Budd, Thomas Kunders and several others, all married to Collins women, are vividly and accurately presented. Published with these accounts are many original documents uncovered by the authors during research in Wales, England and America. A substantial section on Isaac Collins, Quaker printer of Burlington, NJ (1746-1817) was reviewed in Quaker History, vol. 66, no. 2 (Autumn, 1977), p. 125. All three volumes are well indexed and include bibliographical data. Maps, deeds, wills, illustrations and photographs, and genealogical charts enhance these useful studies of Collins family members and add great interest and value to a work which is historical in significance. QUAKER RESEARCH IN PROGRESS Prepared by John and Barbara Curtis Ruth Bogin, 3 Brook Lane, Great Neck, NY 11023 is making use of Quaker materials as she prepares a study of "The Idea of Equality in die American Revolutionary Era." Bogin intends to examine the democratic impulse among non-elite Americans in the years 1764-1794 as demonstrated in issues such as religion, politics and race. * * * Donald B. Kelley of the History Department at Villanova University is concentrating on a study of 18th century Quaker attitudes to ecology and the environment. His article on Anthony Benezet has been accepted for publication in the Pennsylvania Magazine of History and Biography. Quaker Research in Progress65 Kathleen Pokstofel, a graduate student of Bryn Mawr College in the School of Social Work, is in the research stage of a Ph.D. thesis which will examine Quaker women's benevolent societies in the Philadelphia area. * * * Clyde A. Milner II of Utah State University History Department is preparing a biographical study of Albert Smiley as one part of a six-part set of biographical essays, "Churchmen and the Western Indians, 1848-1920." These essays will be presented first at a conference at Utah State University , Logan, Utah, August 5-7, 1982. His article, "Off the White Road: Seven Nebraska Societies in the 1870s," appeared in Western Historical Quarterly, vol. 12, no. 1, Jan. 1981. * * * Dr. Dorothy Gaus of Potomac, Maryland, has been doing research on the activities of the White and Nicholson families in North America over three centuries. She is also preparing materials on the Bacon and Culpepper Rebellions in the American colonies in the 1670s. BRIEFER NOTICES Prepared by John and Barbara Curtis The annual meeting of the Friends Historical Association was held on Monday, November 9, 1981 at the Arch Street Meeting House in Philadelphia . After a pleasant dinner in the East Room the group of some eighty members and guests gathered in the monthly meeting room to conduct the business of the association. John M. Moore, president, presided at the presentation of the minutes of last year's annual meeting and the reading of reports from standing committees, the treasurer and the auditors. John Moore gave a brief review of new publications...